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TITUS 1:9

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

            This verse is the final category presented by Paul in Titus that a church elder must meet.  It is significant how much space Paul gives to this topic.  This section gets even more words than does the section on family.  While a pastor must have a good family life, and while a pastor must have a solid character, he also must, absolutely must, have solid, biblical doctrine.  This tells us that doctrine very much matters.

            Speaking of the pastor, Paul writes, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.”  A pastor must cling tightly, never even for a moment letting go of the trustworthy word, the Bible, as it has been taught for generations.  Trusting the Bible and keeping faithful biblical interpretation is central to what a church leader must be.

            Why should a pastor keep to the word so solidly?  There are two reasons.  A pastor or elder is to instruct people in right doctrine.  He is also to reprove or rebuke those who teach false doctrine.  Neither of these things can happen if the pastor himself is not totally committed to God’s word and to rightly handling it.

            I just spent three days with seven thousand Christians being challenged to never, under any circumstances, allow any adjustment to the gospel or the word of God.  If you look around the world, if you look even around our own community, you will find churches and individuals who simply refuse to stand firm with the Bible as the inspired, unfailing, sufficient word of God.  We must make it plain, regardless of how popular or unpopular, that we believe, as Jude says, the faith that was once, for all time, delivered to the saints.

            You might not be called to be a pastor or an elder, but you have something to learn here.  If doctrine in a pastor is crucial, doctrine in a church member and a servant in the church is crucial too.  If the pastor’s job is to teach you, it is your job to listen, to learn, to study, and to grow in faithful, biblical doctrine. 

            Get your doctrine in order if you are going to be a faithful part of the church.  This means that you do not assume something to be true without biblical support.  This means that you read the Bible and good books by good preachers and teachers who are devoted to the Bible.  And be careful.  Just because a man says he is devoted to the Bible does not make it so.  Test those who teach things.  Have their doctrines been held by the saints over the centuries?  Are their doctrines clearly present in the word?  Be careful, because what you think, what you believe, matters very much.

Judges 7:2

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

            Have you ever thought that God simply must do something in the way that you expect?  One might think that, after a little time spent in God’s word, we would remember that we do not often get these guesses right.  Looking at this passages in Judges is certainly one way to remember that God works in ways that we would not predict.

            The statistics do not work well in Gideon’s favor from the beginning.  There are 135,000 men set up against his 32,000.  But then God tells Gideon that this group is too large (the good guys not the bad guys) for God to deliver Israel.  So, God then whittles the Israelite force down to 10,000, a ratio of 13.5 to 1.  Then, in the strangest move ever, God shrinks the Israelite force down to only 300 men.  What in the world!  Three hundred men against 135,000?  That’s a ratio of 450 to 1—not winning odds.

            But, God is amazing.  He does things in ways we do not expect.  God was not interested in simply giving Israel a military victory—that would have been too easy.  No, God is interested in his top priority, his own glory.  God will not allow his glory to be taken by a strong Israelite force.  So, God uses only 1 out of every 107 volunteers to take on the enemy.  And, God wins.  God does the impossible.  And in doing so, God gets all the glory.

            Is your church too small?  Is your family too messed up?  Is your past too much to overcome?  Not for God.  He can rout an army with a tiny band of men.  He can KO giants with small young men.  He can make the sun stand still, part the sea, put a stop to rivers, and shake the mountains.  God can do anything.  Don’t be surprised if God might choose to use even you, in all your weakness; because using you might just be the thing that will give God the most glory.

Joshua 23:11-13 (ESV)

11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

            Throughout the Old Testament, God constantly reminded Israel not to intermarry with the peoples of the land.  This call from God had nothing to do with modern racism, putting people down simply because of their ethnicity.  Instead, God’s call not to intermarry with the people of the land was always focused on the fact that the people of the land worshipped false gods and those marriages would lead God’s people astray.

            My thoughts this evening [last Saturday] are not so much focused on marriage.  This is strange, as I’m actually in my van on the way home from a wedding.  So, perhaps I’m just weddinged out.

            Without pondering weddings, then, is there anything we can learn from the text above?  How about this:  God told the people that, were they to intermarry, they would be led astray and lose the favor of God that they had been experiencing.  If they were to bring pagan living into their households, they were going to make themselves enemies of God.  Thus, bringing false religion into their homes was tantamount to declaring war on God.

            OK, here comes the pointed application—ready?  What do you allow into your life on a daily basis that has the potential to lead you away from God?  What do you, by your own choice, bring into your life that will dampen your love of God and your commitment to his glory first and foremost?   

            We live in such a culture of false beliefs, false religion, false sources of joy that it is almost impossible not to be tainted or corrupted by the faulty values espoused.  Whether it is entertainment or simply the newspaper, the culture we live in sets itself in opposition to God and his law.  If we allow ourselves to remain immersed in the bad thinking of the culture, we will be led astray just as much as were the Israelites who eventually intermarried with the pagans of the land. 

            What can you do to fix this?  You cannot remove yourself from the world; you have to live here.  You cannot avoid all bad input.  However, you can be careful, think clearly, and set important guards up in your life to help you to avoid being led to think like the world.  Besides avoiding evil, the positive side of this is to regularly fill your mind with that which honors God.  Think on that which is honoring to God, and you will find yourself not enjoying the filth of the world (Phil 4:8).

[Six Days later]

            Now I’m home from Together for the Gospel, and I have seen even more of the truth of my above thoughts.  O how wonderful it was to take 3 days of life to be with 7,000 friends, all of whom were singing with gusto the doctrinally-driven, emotionally-rich, glory-filled praises of the Lord.  We sang.  We heard the word of God preached again and again and again.  We talked about gospel things.  As we did all of this, the darker influences of the world, the coarse humor, the sinful desires, they seemed to fade away.  It was as if we who are believers were going into detox and finding ourselves cleansed, refilled with gospel joy, and set loose to bring this joy back to our churches.  Christians, you will find joy as you turn from evil and fill your heart, set your mind, on that which glorifies the Lord.

Mark 3:20-22

20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

                Here is one interesting little authenticator of the Scripture.  You might have read in conspiracy-theorizing fiction (think The Da Vinci Code) that the Bible was actually written by liars who wanted to make Jesus look super good and give power to the early church.  However, what we see happening right here in Mark 3 simply does not fit with such a conspiracy.

                In verses 20-21, we see Mark tell us that Jesus’ own family thought he was nuts.  In verse 22, we see that Mark then tells us that the most prominent religious thinkers of Jesus’ day called him demon-possessed.  Simply put, if an author was trying to spin a yarn about Jesus being more than he actually claimed to be, they would not have written these things down for future consumption.  The questioning nature of Jesus’ own family and the Pharisees is evidence that Mark’s gospel was written, not by a man who was attempting to convince us of something false, but rather by someone who wanted to communicate the facts, regardless of the light they shed on the characters in the narrative.

                Of course a good conspiracy theorist might argue that this authenticating device is exactly the tricky little thing.  Maybe Mark planted this ugly little passage in order to throw his detractors off the trail.  The problem is, in those days, people simply didn’t’ write like that or think like that.  It is a decidedly modern writing style that brings realistic twists and red herrings into the plot of fiction to make it look more realistic.  Such devices simply were not used at the time that the biblical authors wrote.  We must not translate Dan Brown’s writing style back into the first century A.D.; it just will not fit there.

                By the way, I’m not mad at Dan Brown for writing a piece of fiction.  I see the undo harm that books like Brown’s can do to the faith of the naive, but I do not expect anything different from a lost world that loves its conspiracies.  However, an author that will raise such questions about the Son of God must repent of this and embrace Christ to be forgiven—just as all people must repent of sin and embrace Christ to be forgiven. 

                The point I want to make is only this:  Mark’s gospel shows us clearly that it is not a sneaky little fiction designed to deceive its readers.  The Marks of Mark’s writing (clever huh?) are marks of truth and authenticity.  Mark would not have allowed negative light to be cast on Jesus from his family if Mark did not believe what he was writing to be true—every bit.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (ESV)

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.

        Sometimes we wish that God would have given us a list of things that are permissible and things that are not so that we would have no doubts.  If we had a nice little IPod app that would allow us to look up our exact circumstances and situation so that we knew what was OK with God, we think our lives would be easier.  Maybe that would have made life easier; maybe not.  Either way, God did not give us an encyclopedia of situations with laws for every possible permutation.  Instead, God gave us his holy word, and that is sufficient for everything we need.

        Think, for example, about the text above.  While it does not necessarily give us specifics on every situation in life, the verse above is extremely helpful in knowing what is acceptable for us as Christians.  IN fact, the verse above leaves the door open for something to be OK for one Christian while not being OK for another.  The rule is, do not be enslaved by anything.

        Let’s avoid, at this point, the discussion of substances that are potentially physically addictive.  That opens up a can of worms that we need not address to gain glorious truth from the verse above.  Instead, let’s simply apply one standard of measure for life.  Something is bad for you, enslaving to you, if one of the two following statements is true of you:

·                Are you willing to sin to get what you want?

·                Are you going to sin if you do not get what you want?

If either of the above is true, the item in question, whatever it may be , is a sinful thing for you.

        Now, take those points, and apply them in areas other than smoking, drinking, or whatever we like to immediately put on the “bad” list.  A young couple could be sinfully enslaved to the desire to have a child.  That desire could actually become a sinful idol, an obsession that the couple is willing to sin to achieve.  It is possible that the couple might even try giving God an ultimatum, saying they will only continue to follow him if he grants this one request.  Either way, the couple has been enslaved by a desire for something that is generally good, but which in their case has become a trap for them.

        Try another situation.  Pastors want their churches to grow.  We want numbers of people.  We want to see people saved.  We want to raise funds to send money to missions.  We want to be influencing on our communities.  Are we willing to sin to achieve this end?  O I hope not.  Are we going to sin if our desires are not met?  Again, I hope not.  Yet many in the clergy are willing to compromise to get numbers and are willing to comfort themselves with inappropriate things if their desires are not met.

        We should be able to take the two points above along with 1 Corinthians 6:12 to examine just about anything in our lives.  It might be lawful, but it might not be profitable.  IT might be OK for some, but not for you.  It might be that you need to ask God to temper your desires, as your want for something good could easily turn into a God-dishonoring lust.  Make sure that God and his glory is your number one priority.  Set your mind and heart on him, and be sure that nothing on earth, not even a good thing, enslaves you.

Mark 2:6-12

6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

            Have you ever noticed that we seldom ask God why he performed a miracle of kindness?  When things happen that we do not like, we cry out to God, saying, “Why would you let this happen, Lord?”  However, when God does something amazing and good, we seldom say to God, “How could you let such a wonderful thing happen?” 

            We would, however, do well to think about the miracles of Jesus and their purpose.  Take for example the miracle in Mark 2.  We have in this chapter the famous scene of the four friends bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus.  Carrying their friend on a mat, the four discover that there is no way to get close to Jesus.  So, the four creative friends climb up to the roof of the house, dig through, and lower the paralyzed man down on his mat to Jesus. 

            In a fascinating moment, Jesus sees the faith of these folks, and announces that the sins of the paralyzed man on the mat are forgiven.  This, of course, gets the attention of the Jewish teachers, which is where our text above picks up the story.  The Jews wonder just who Jesus thinks he is, declaring a man’s sins forgiven.    

            Jesus, for his part, chooses to heal the man on the mat of his paralysis.  Why?  The Jews have determined that only God has the right to forgive sins.  Jesus wants them to know that he is God, and thus can do things that only God can do.  Healing a paralyzed man with a command is something only God can do.  Forgiving sins is something only God can do. So Jesus heals the man with a command to show that he is God, can do things that only God can do, and thus can forgive sins too.

            There are at least two things that we should learn from this event.  First, you should recognize that Jesus is God.  Jesus did the miracle for the purpose of showing you that he is God and has the right to forgive sins against God.  If you want to be forgiven of your sins, you must come through Jesus.  No one will ever be put in right relationship with God who does not come to God through Jesus (John 14:6).

            How about this for a second point?  Start thinking about why you are asking God to do the miracles that you pray for him to do.  When you ask him to heal a sick person, save a soul, or grow your local church, think about why God might want to do this.  Yes, God is loving and kind, but are there more reasons?  Start thinking about the ways in which the working of God in each situation might result in God being glorified for the action.  Start praying for things that do not merely make you comfortable or feel good, but pray for things that will redound to the praise and glory of God. 

            So often our church prayer meetings are full of simple requests that honestly will have no impact on how the world sees the glory of God.  Praying that little Bobby’s broken arm will mend without complication will not do a great deal to help your neighbor see that God is glorious or that Jesus is the way.  However, praying for God to bring souls to Christ, that will result in his praise.  Think, Christians, about how what you pray for might actually show the world that God is amazing.